


Space Invader

by Pan_Princess



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean OC - Freeform, Altean Original Character, F/M, M/M, Multi, OC, Original Character - Freeform, Original Female Character - Freeform, Slow Build, Slow Romance, Uncle Coran, altean, im changing the ending bc it was bullshit, klance, this story will have actual character development
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-08-25 03:02:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16653055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pan_Princess/pseuds/Pan_Princess
Summary: 10,000 years ago, Cenelra Wimbelton was taken away from her family on Altea and forcefully experimented on by the Galra. For years she was mind controlled and put in and out of hypersleep, forced to serve as a weapon for Zarkon and many high ranking commanders, until Haggar sent her out in an attempt to capture the Voltron Lions. Thankfully, she failed her mission and was rescued by the paladins, although she's not entirely certain that the Galra are done attempting to control her.(The beginning chapters of this story are a bit rough because I was a little rusty when beginning to write this, it gets better later on.)





	1. Chapter 1

Bullets whizzed past as Cenelra ducked and dodged Galra soldiers, narrowly avoiding their blows and attempts to grab her. She grabbed a gun from the ground and aimed it, killing a few sentries and continuing her dash towards the castle. As she ran, a sentry managed to shoot one of her legs, injuring her greatly and causing her to slow down a bit, but she couldn’t stop, not even for a second. Alteans fell around her, the sounds of babies crying and people screaming would ring in her ears for many years to come, if she managed to survive.

She continued her sprint, eliminating any soldiers or centries that attempted to stand in her way, and continued to make her way towards the Castle of Lions, knowing that she’d be safe once she saw her uncle Coran. As she got closer, she noticed that the crowd of Alteans and Galran soldiers began to thin, but this didn’t worry her enough to even think about slowing down. As she neared one of the entrances to the castle, she felt something stick to her back and then crippling electrocution ran through her body. She fell to the ground with a shout and someone grabbed her by her hair and dragged her along the ground. She kicked and attempted to pry the hand off of her hand, but to no avail, another shock ran through her body and suddenly, she was being dragged aboard a ship and as she felt another shock come along, everything went black.

When she awoke, she was strapped to a table, Galra soldiers surrounding her and one person injecting something into her left arm. She immediately began to struggle and panic but as soon as the syringe was empty and flowed into her bloodstream, she passed out yet again. The next time she woke up, she was coming out of a cryogenic pod with only one thought.  _ Obey.  _

She spent many days doing as whatever commander told her to, often interrogating or killing prisoners. As she became more powerful, she was used less and less, being taken out of cryogenic sleep in only extreme cases which became fewer and fewer as the Galra empire took over the universe. For years, she slept, until one day, she was brought out yet again.

“Cenelra, my pet, your mission is one of the utmost importance today,” Haggar said as Cenelra stepped out of her pod. “Zarkon has decided to allow you to pilot a robot that will engage in battle with the new paladins of Voltron themselves.”

“Of course. Anything for our emperor,” Cenelra droned on, her blue eyes glassy and staring at nothing. She followed Haggar to where the robot was waiting, her dark skin and long dark orange hair casting a large shadow over her facial features. As she boarded her vessel, she stopped and turned around to face Haggar, saluting her before entering the machine and preparing to launch. She didn’t have to do much of anything as the robot flew itself to the planet the lions resided on and in seemingly no time, she’d arrived on the planet and began to attack the paladins and the castle. 

Although she was able to counter most of the moves the Lions made, ultimately, she failed and her robot powered down. Cenelra ejected herself from the machine and began to make her way towards the castle, her sprint reminding her of something she’d seen before. She shook away the feeling as she continued to run towards the castle, attempting to ignore the paladins attempting to speak with her.

“This is Shiro, paladin of the black lion, if you’re injured, we need you to stop moving and let us help you.”

Of course, because of her programming, she ignored him and continued on.

“I said, stop moving so we can help you.”

And again, no response.

Cenelra was unsure of what happened, but the next thing she knew, the red lion had fired its cannon in front of her and as she was hit in the head with flying debris, she blacked out.

* * *

 

“Keith, I told you firing at them was a bad idea!” Shiro exclaimed as he landed his lion and climbed out.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know if she was a threat or not.”

“Well, you could’ve waited for them to do something  _ before  _ shooting at them!” Lance retorted.

The two continued to bicker as Shiro picked Cenelra up and brought her aboard the black lion, quickly taking her to the Castle of Lions. The rest of the paladins followed, and once they returned, Shiro immediately brought the person to the infirmary where Coran and Allura were waiting.

“A Galra solder? But why would they have just one?” Allura pondered as Shiro entered the room, still holding the soldier in his arms. Allura gently took the helmet off of the soldier, gasping as soon as she was able to see the girl’s face.

“An Altean? And she… She looks like you, Coran.”

“She what now?” Coran asked, whipping around from the pod he’d been prepping for her. As he looked at her, he gasped and rushed over, taking the girl from Shiro. “It’s my niece, Cenelra. I-... I thought she’d perished with her parents because she never came to meet me on Altea like I’d told her to.”

“I didn’t know you had any siblings,” Allura commented while Coran gently placed Cenelra into a healing pod.

“I had a sister, and she gave me my only niece.”

Coran was quiet and calm as he began her healing processes, a solemn look on his face. No one spoke as Coran worked and gazed at his niece, obviously thinking everything over.

“Coran, why don’t we go relax in the dining room and let you think everything over,” Allura suggested, gently placing a hand on Coran’s shoulder. Coran took a deep breath, nodded, and wiped away a stray tear.

* * *

 

Cenelra awoke again a couple of days later, her pod shutting down and opening when the castle’s power was shut down. She pried the door to her pod open and stepped out, glancing around for a second before moving on to where she’d heard noise. As she entered the control room, she noticed two of the paladins on the ground, one of them looking incredibly injured and the other sitting with his hands tied.

“Commander Sendak. What are your orders?”

“Ah, Cenelra, we thought you’d been eliminated, good to see that you’re still alive. Watch the door for the other paladins, make sure none of them get in while we start the ship.”

Cenelra nodded and headed towards the door, standing to the side of the door so no one could see her from the outside. At one point, the green paladin ran in and baited Sendak out of the room, only to run back in mere moments later and attempt to wake the black paladin. As soon as the green paladin knelt down in front of Shiro, Cenelra lunged forward and yanked him up off of the ground, holding him by his torso in order to keep his arms pinned to his sides. The smaller paladin struggled and kicked, attempting to free himself from Cenelra’s grasp but Cenelra simply tightened her grasp. 

“Thought you could trick me with a hologram, did you?” Sendak laughed as he walked back into the room. “No matter, you alone cannot stop us.”

“Let go of him!” the red paladin exclaimed, drawing his bayard as he and the princess entered the room.

“I’d stay over there if I were you. Cenelra is rather strong, I’d hate to see how she breaks your friend,” Sendak threatened and Cenelra tightened her grasp on the green paladin, only to have him yell out in pain. She dropped the paladin with a yell a second later as the blue paladin awoke from his coma and shot her in the back, giving Shiro the chance to rush at Sendak and allow Keith to begin attacking him. Cenelra turned her attention back to the green paladin and the princess, now set on taking them down by any means necessary. She lunged forward and landed a few punches on the green paladin but he, unfortunately, attacked her more fiercely with his bayard, obviously attempting to wound her and stop her from fighting him.

“I thought you were Coran’s niece! Why are you fighting with the Galra if they killed your planet and your people?” The green paladin exclaimed.

“Alteans were weak, that is why Emperor Zarkon destroyed their planet. He’s given me the chance to do well for myself and allow one of the last Alteans to not be weak.” Cenelra lunged at the green paladin once more only for him to jump out of the way and hit her head on the wall. Once she recovered, she noticed Sendak trapped in a barrier along with the Galra crystal that was supposed to power the ship.

“Release my commander at once!” she shouted, standing tall and preparing to take on the two paladins. The green paladin shot his bayard at her and she caught it, but before she had the chance to pull the paladin closer, electric current went through the weapon and Cenelra fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

“Pidge, you’re not supposed to hurt her  _ that  _ much!” The princess yelled.

“I didn’t! That was just a minor shock that was meant to disorient her for a little bit.”

“So then why-” the red paladin began but was cut off.

“There’s gotta be something controlling her, something metal. That’s why she reacts so negatively to my bayard.” Pidge interrupted. “I’m going to shock her again when she gets up. Allura, see if you can find what’s controlling her and get it off.” Cenelra rose from the ground and onto her knees and a moment later, Pidge shocked her again, knocking her back down onto the floor. Allura was at her side a moment later, checking her arms and neck to see if she could find anything before she checked her head. There, embedded in the side of her head was a Galra looking chip, blinking every couple of ticks or so. 

“Found it!” 

Pidge rushed over to her and looked at the chip that continued to blink. As he attempted to figure out a way to remove the chip without harming Cenelra, she began to stir. Allura panicked and, in a flash, she’d ripped the chip out of the girl’s head and she fell to the ground once again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished Voltron and got hella inspired so expect more chapters!

The next time Cenelra woke up, she was trapped in a healing pod with no one else around. She glanced around, hoping to get a sense of where she was, but all she could determine was that she wasn’t in any Galra space. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down and as she exhaled, the air in the pod thinned and it began to become increasingly more difficult to breathe. She raised her hands and pushed on the doors, attempting to get it to open so she wouldn’t suffocate, but her struggling only made her condition worse. As she continued to struggle, she hit the doors harder and screamed for help, hoping that someone would hear and help. Cenelra grew weaker as she continued to beat on the doors of the pod and hyperventilated, using one of her last breaths to scream for help again. Her vision began to grow dark around the edges when two men ran in, one of them holding a red bayard.

“See, Keith? I told you I heard something!” the brown haired one exclaimed while the black haired one shoved his bayard into the doors of Cenelra’s pod and forced them open. As soon as the doors were open, Cenelra leaned forward and nearly fell over but the brown haired boy caught her as she gasped for breath, clutching onto his jacket.

“Wh- where am I? Who are you?”    
“I’m Lance, and you’re right here in my arms,” Lance smirked.

“Well, you’re rather cute,” Cenelra commented and glanced at her other savior. “You’re rather cute as well.” Lance and Keith blushed slightly and as Lance was about to speak, he interrupted him. 

“Th-that’s not important right now! The castle is trying to kill us and, clearly, it was trying to kill you too! We should find everyone else and figure out what’s going on.”

Cenelra nodded and took the hand that Lance offered her and the three took off towards where the other paladins and Coran were.

“Uncle Coran!” Cenelra exclaimed, running towards the man.

“Cenelra! Sweetheart!” Coran lifted the girl up and spun her around, grinning and giggling. “Are you alright? Why are you awake so soon, it’s only been a couple of days.”

“The ship was trying to kill me! It seems like it’s trying to kill all of us,” Cenelra frowned. 

“Yeah, we were floating around in Zero G! Do you know how terrifying that is?” the larger man asked.

“That’s not scary, that’s fun! I was almost ejected into space!” Lance yelled back.

“I was attacked by killer food! That’s the most horrifying thing you could imagine! It’ll haunt me to my grave!” the large man retorted.

“Well, I had a robot try to kill me!” Keith yelled.

“And I almost suffocated,” Cenelra said exasperatedly.

“How are we supposed to know that you’re not the one causing this? Just a few ticks ago you were trying to kill us!” Pidge yelled back and Cenelra scoffed.

“I can’t  _ even  _ remember that! I was brainwashed by Zarkon!”

“We can argue about that later!” Coran interjected. “I think the infection from Sendak’s crystal is worse than we thought.”

“Wait- Sendak connected a Galran crystal to the  _ castle _ ?!”

“You really don’t remember much, do you?” Coran asked, frowning at the girl.

“Wait, has anyone seen Shiro?” Keith asked.

“The paladin of the black lion,” Coran quietly said to Cenelra. “I haven’t. Do you think he’s still with Sendak?”

“Sendak is  _ on  _ the ship?!”

No one acknowledged Cenelra and instead, they all took off towards, where Cenelra guessed, Sendak was being kept. The group then found themselves in a room filled with large pods and Shiro kneeling on the ground in front of an empty tube.

“Shiro, are you okay?” Pidge asked, running over with Keith to help the older man up.

“Where’s Sendak?” Keith asked. 

“I… I had to get him out of here. He… He can’t be trusted on this ship,” Shiro stuttered, slowly rising to his feet. “You. You brought this upon us.”

Cenelra frowned but continued to stare at Shiro. “I’m sorry for what I did but I truly can’t remember much of anything.”

“It’s not her, it’s the ship! I got trapped in a healing pod then in an airlock, Cenelra almost suffocated, Keith was attacked by a robot, and Pidge and Hunk got attacked by food,” Lance spoke then sighed. “It’s been a weird morning.”

A sudden alarm started the group and Cenelra joined Coran where he was standing near a computer, attempting to investigate the alarm.

“This can’t be possible, the ship is starting a wormhole jump!” Coran exclaimed and Cenelra gasped.

“Princess Allura! What if she’s in danger?”

“Why do  _ you  _ care about the princess?” Lance asked as Coran led them through the castle, attempting to get to cockpit of the castle.

“She  _ is  _ the princess of my homeworld, Lance.”

Lance rolled his eyes and the seven reached the cockpit of the castle, seeing Allura pilot the castle towards a large star that looked like it was about to explode. They attempted to speak to Allura but Alfor kept up a barricade, not allowing them to speak to her as he maintained his hold on her. A small meadow showed itself on the ground where Allura was standing and she plucked a flower, staring at it and smiling.

Cenelra thought for a moment before realizing something, “Your Highness, smell the juniberry! What you see isn’t real!”

Allura brought the flower to her nose and her face fell as soon as she sniffed it, she dropped the flower and attempted to stop the ship but was thrown back, out of the control area. Coran helped Allura up and upon learning that Allura needed to reset the system, the princess took off towards one of the lower wings of the ship. Coran rushed to one of the control pannels and began attempting to override the system so Allura could disconnect the AI’s power source. After a couple of tries and subsequent denials into the system, Coran groaned and called out to Cenelra.

“Cenelra! Do you remember how to override the system?”

“You taught me that when I was young! How could I possibly?”

“Doesn’t matter! I need you to try!”

Hesitantly but quickly, Cenelra made her way over to the control panel and stared at the controls for a moment before everything suddenly came back to her.

 

* * *

 

A very small and young Cenelra- who had her orange hair done up into pigtails and wearing royal blue jumpsuit with an animal on it, that delightfully complemented her brown skin- giggled as she ran around the control room, tapping buttons and harassing the other Alteans as they checked the equipment. When Coran noticed, he quickly picked up the little girl who attempted to wiggle out of his arms at first but gave up when his hold didn’t cease. 

“Little one, would you please stop bothering the others? They need to do their jobs.”

“But Uncle Coran, I’m bored,” the child whined. “Why would you bring me here if it’s so  _ boring _ .”   
“Because your parents are at work and your babysitter went to visit her relatives on another planet,” at this Cenelra began to whine and complain again and after a moment, Coran thought of something. “What if I show you something cool?”

At this, Cenelra stopped whining and looked at her uncle inquisitively. Coran shifted her to his hip and walked over to a nearby control panel where he pressed a few buttons before the color tone shifted to red and a giant “X” showed up on screen.

“See how I can’t do anything to the system? That’s because something is blocking everything I do. So, what I’m going to do is-” Coran launched into how to override a system, dismantling the work he’d done a couple minutes prior and managing to get into the system again before locking himself out again and asking Cenelra to try. After a few attempts, the little girl managed to copy what her uncle had done and begged Coran to set it up again so she could do it a second time.

 

* * *

 

Cenelra immediately began tapping away at the screen, humming in disapproval when the system attempted to keep her out before successfully opening the doors to the hangar so the Paladins could slow the castle’s movement towards the star. 

“I knew you could do it,” Coran smiled and Cenelra gave him a small smile back.

“I can’t remember very much- at all, really, I hardly remember anything before I was captured.”

At this Coran frowned and drew in a breath, “Well, what can you remember?”

“I remember my parents and the day the Galra invaded Altea,” Cenelra paused, wrapping her arms around herself as her body grew rigid. “I remember being tortured. I- I remember some of the things that I’ve done.”

She took in a deep breath, looking down at her shoes as tears welled in her eyes before she began to speak. “I tortured people, I even killed people. But when I wanted to stop I couldn’t and I- I couldn’t stop myself from hurting them.”

She brought a hand to her face as her tears began to flow freely down her cheeks, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed quietly. Coran pulled the girl into a hug, holding her as she sobbed and she clung to him, not wanting to let him go. Her sobs slowed down and when she felt okay enough to release her uncle, the two noticed that the ship had gone back to normal, indicating that Allura had been successful. At the sound of the Paladins and Allura approaching the control room, Cenelra quickly dried her tears and altered herself slightly so her eyes wouldn’t appear red. 

“Uncle Coran, do you think you could show me to my room? If I, uh, have a room.”

“Of course you have a room. Come on, I’ll show you to it,” Coran led her out of the room as the other hurried in so Allura could jump them away from the collapsing star. Cenelra and Coran stumbled slightly as the ship jumped through a wormhole and then came out of it. 

“This is your room here, Lance is on your left and Keith is across the hall over there,” Coran indicated and Cenelra frowned but nodded. 

“I think it would be best if you tried to get to know the Paladins, they’re all wonderful and just about your age,” Coran rested a hand on her shoulder. “They’d love you if they got to know you.”

She gave a quick nod and hugged Coran, telling him that she’d speak to him after she attempted to get some rest. Cenelra went into her room and locked the door behind her, finding a small closet and dresser filled with different types of clothes. She changed out of her Galran uniform and into an oversized t-shirt, thankful to be out of her suit for the first time in years. She then released her hair from its tightly held ponytail and shook her hair out, her hair falling down to the small of her back. Cenelra finally felt calm enough to lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling as she attempted to sleep, to rest for once in ten thousand years. And finally, after lying awake for what felt like an eternity, she was able to drift off into what would be a restless and completely unsatisfying sleep. 


	3. Chapter 3

Early the next morning, Cenelra awoke with a start with the feeling that someone was watching her. Of course, there wasn’t anyone in the room and Cenelra sat up, dismissing her fear and attributing it to the fact that she’d been controlled for ten thousand years. After a moment, she stood and decided to search through her closet and drawers in an attempt to find something that she could feel comfortable wearing. She settled on a baggy pink and white shirt with sleeves that went to her wrists and a collar that she’d leave unbuttoned and baggy blue jeans. Cenelra then left her room and walked down the hall to the bathroom where she took a quick shower, got dressed, and then headed towards the kitchen. She froze as she entered the room, noticing that the yellow paladin was standing near the oven and taking something out.

“Oh, hey,” he smiled as he leaned up and closed the oven. “I don’t think we ever properly met. I’m Hunk, the pilot of the yellow lion.” He set down the tray he was holding and took off his oven mitts before noticing that Cenelra was still standing in the doorway, completely rigid.

“You can come in, you know, I made cinnamon buns. Well, I got as close as I could with like space ingredients.”

“C-Cinnamon buns?”

“You’ve never had a cinnamon bun? Okay, now I  _ insist  _ you sit and eat,” Hunk said, excitedly making a plate for himself and Cenelra. Remembering that Coran wanted her to at least try to become friends with the paladins, she sat at the kitchen island, still somewhat rigid but now tying to relax. Hunk took a few minutes to plate a few different things and pour them glasses of water then placed a plate and glass of water in front of Cenelra and moved to sit next to her. She stared at the cinnamon bun for a short while before noticing how Hunk ate his and decided to try it. She bit into the pastry and was immediately overcome by a sense of joy as she tasted the best thing she’d eaten in years. She scarfed down the treat rather quickly and licked her fingers clean of frosting before realizing what she’d done and became slightly embarrassed.

Hunk chuckled, “So, I’m guessing you like them?”

Cenelra nodded and spoke quietly, “They’re, um, very good.”

“Well have as many as you’d like, I made enough batter for a couple more batches.”

Cenelra decided to take Hunk’s offer and ate three more cinnamon buns before becoming full. She downed her glass of water and placed her plate and glass in the sink then began to leave the room, stopping in the doorway.

“Um, Hunk?” she began and turned around to face him. Once he was looking at her, she continued, “Thanks.”

Cenelra left the room then, deciding to head to a training area and see if she could remember anything she was programmed to do. Once she got to the training area, she stood by a wall of weapons, attempting to decide on which one she wanted to use. She finally decided on an Altean battle axe, a weapon with a staff thin enough to be held in one hand and a two-headed blade with a spear in the middle of the two blades. She set the battle trainer to level one and stood in the center of the room, waiting for one of the robots to attack her. When it did, Cenelra found herself easily defeating it, slicing it in half with one motion, so she decided to move up to the next level. Again, she found the challenge easy so she went up a level again and this continued for a short while before she found herself taking on several level twenty robots. She lunged and sliced at them, landing a few blows and missing others. Cenelra stabbed one of the robots, sending it to the ground with a crunch, before elbowing a robot that stood close behind her and knocking it back far enough for her to turn around and swing her axe, slicing the second robot in half. She turned and faced the final robot, the machine now lunging at her, and stabbed it straight through the middle, holding it against the wall for a second before turning the spear that was still inside of the machine and releasing it, allowing it to fall to the ground with a thump.

“Wow.”

At the sound of a voice behind her, Cenelra spun around and aimed her weapon at the source. Upon realizing that it was Lance, she gasped and aimed the spear away from him, not wanting him to think that she intended to harm him.

“You’re a pretty good fighter, almost as good as me,” he chuckled, flashing a small smile. “Coran wanted me to get you, he said he’ll need your help since the rest of us are infiltrating a Galra base.” At Cenelra’s confused and inquisitive look, he spoke again. “We managed to find it by using Sendak’s memories, we’re hoping that it’ll give us a better idea about the Galra’s next move.”

Cenelra nodded and put her weapon back in its place then followed Lance out of the room and into the hallway where they walked in silence for a few ticks before Lance decided to speak again.

“So… You’re Coran’s niece. You kinda look like him.”

“The orange hair is- er, was a Wimbleton trait back on Altea. Only a handful of Alteans had it,” Cenelra spoke quietly.

“So you were kind of like the odd one out.”

“Still am.”

The two stopped outside of the control room and before Cenelra had the chance to open the door, Lance spoke again.

“Cenelra… None of us hate you, I think you should know that. We’re just not sure of you since you were kind of controlled by the enemy and then tried to kill us.”

“You have every reason to be wary of me, for all you know I could still be evil. I don’t- I don’t think I am. I  _ do _ want to help you all,” Cenelra trailed off, now looking up at Lance. “Please know that I’m sorry for everything.”

She didn’t give Lance any time to respond and instead went into the room walking over to where Coran was and greeting him with a half hug. Coran briefed her on the Paladin’s and Allura’s plans and the two piloted the ship as close to the Galran base as possible and left the Paladin’s to infiltrate the base.

“Uncle Coran, you’re sure about Princess Allura going with them? She  _ is  _ the princess of Altea,” Cenelra spoke up after a moment of silence.

“Well she wanted to go, I couldn’t really stop her. She’s rather stubborn,” Coran paused. “Kind of like you.”

“What? I am  _ not  _ stubborn!”

“You absolutely are! Or are you not the same girl who once refused to visit me for three movements because I told you I didn’t like your ex-girlfriend?”

At this, Cenelra huffed and rolled her eyes, folding her arms over her chest with a playful smile on her face. The two went silent again as they waited for any updates from the Paladins and Cenelra decided to sit in a nearby chair sideways.

“So… What do we do now?”

“We wait until someone updates us on what’s going on. If we’re lucky, it’ll stay boring for a little while,” Coran said, tapping away at the screen she was looking at. Cenelra sat in the chair, swinging her legs and staring at the ceiling until the computer beeped and Keith began transmitting a live video feed.

“Coran, Cenelra, you guys need to see this.”

On the screen was a room filled with cases upon cases of a glowing, reddish pink material. Cenelra stood from where she sat and walked closer to the windshield that showed Keith’s feed. Something about the substance looked incredibly familiar to her, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it.

“The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe.”

* * *

 

A scream of pain and terror rung out as Cenelra’s grip on the woman’s wrist tightened and she pulled her closer before wrapping a hand around the woman’s neck and squeezing. The woman struggled and clawed at Cenelra’s hand as Cenelra held her up and walked towards a wall of pods with one of them open. She threw the woman in, watching as she cried out in pain upon hitting her head and attempted to climb out but was stopped when Cenelra slammed the door in her face. The woman screamed and cried, begging to be let out as she scratched at the door, attempting to free herself.

“Excellent work, Cenelra. Now come, there’s much more to do."

* * *

Cenelra gasped and stepped backwards, tripping over her own feet and falling to the ground, her eyes trained on the screen in front of her.

“Th-They’re getting quintessence from people! But that- that can’t be right, how would that even work- it’s not, it shouldn’t be,” she rambled, her hands clutching at her scalp as she pulled her own hair.

“Cenelra, sweetheart, calm down, it’s okay,” Coran spoke gently, holding her to his chest. After a couple of minutes, she calmed down, steadying her breathing and being okay enough to release Coran. The two stood and Cenelra leaned on a nearby computer, unsure if she would remember something else and collapse again.

“What was that?”

“I think I remembered something I did,” Cenelra spoke quietly.

Coran was about to say something else when the Paladins rushed in and Pidge immediately went to a computer.

“What happened? Where’s Allura?” Coran asked and Shiro sighed.

“They captured her. She sacrificed herself to save me and the information, I didn’t have a choice.”

“You let them take the princess?” Cenelra exclaimed. “How  _ exactly  _ does that happen?”

“Look, we can’t focus on what went wrong right now, we need to make sure that everything else goes right,” Shiro said, maintaining eye contact with a relatively irritated Cenelra before turning his attention to Pidge. “Pidge, anything?”

“Yeah, guys, look at this,” Pidge pulled up an image of an incredibly large Galra base containing multiple fleets of Galra ships. 

“Look at the size of it!” Coran commented.

“I think we should go in right away. Every minute we waste gives us time for Zarkon time to prepare for us,” Pidge said and Cenelra nodded in agreement with Lance.

“I agree. We form Voltron, fly in, fly out, dust off our hands, and fly away,” Lance shrugged.

“Um, do you guys not remember the Balmera? We could barely take out one fleet. But this... a base this size could hold a thousand fleets!” Hunk said, anxiety evident in his voice.

“Or maybe we shouldn't go on this mission at all. Think about it. We'll be delivering the universe's only hope to the universe's biggest enemy,” at Keith’s words, everyone froze and turned to look at him.

“What the quiznak is wrong with you?” Cenelra shouted.

“Yeah, Keith, that’s cold. What if it was one of us? What if it was me? You wouldn’t leave me would you?” Hunk asked.

“I’m not saying I like the idea, I’m just thinking like a paladin.”

“No, you’re thinking of yourself because you’re too scared to do what’s right!” Lance accused and Cenelra nodded, anger still apparent on her face.

“Okay, everyone calm down. We’re all upset because we lost Allura but arguing with each other isn’t going to fix anything,” Pidge reasoned and rolled her eyes but relaxed her shoulders in an attempt to calm down. 

“Let’s focus, how do we get Allura?” Shiro asked and Cenelra took a deep breath and spoke up.

“We find a way in and I go with you.”

“What?! Absolutely not,” Coran exclaimed.

“Uncle Coran, they’ll need all the help they can get. I’ll stay with one of them the entire time but we can’t afford to send them in alone,” Cenelra attempted to reason.

“Well, I can’t afford to lose more than one person today!”

“Uncle Coran, I can hold my own. I can promise you, you won’t lose more than one person today.”

Coran stared at his niece for a while before sighing and running a hand over his face, nodding as he finally agreed to let Cenelra go with the Paladins.

“Just, stay with Lance, please?”

Cenelra nodded and hugged her uncle, not knowing if she would survive the attempted rescue from the Galran base. But she did know one thing, the princess,  _ her  _ princess, would make it back to the castle alive.

Even if it meant sacrificing her own life.

 


	4. Chapter 4

The Paladins, Coran, and Cenelra eventually found a way to get to the hub of the Galra command, by creating a wormhole with the remainder of Allura’s energy onboard the ship. After they jumped to Galra command, the Paladins made their way to their lions but before Cenelra was going to join Lance in his, Coran stopped her.

“I know you feel like you have to do this, like you owe us something because you did some not so great things, but please know that you don’t have to,” he began and continued to speak before Cenelra could interject. “I know I can’t stop you, I just wanted you to have something.” Coran retrieved a small cylindrical-shaped object from his pocket and handed it to his niece.

“Ah, don’t activate it, you’ll injure me. It’s your mother’s battle-ax, she gave it to me after she had you. It was her way of telling me that she was ready to settle down. Seeing as this is your time to fight, I figured that this weapon belongs to you now.”

Cenelra pulled her uncle into a hug and she could feel his body tremble as he began to cry.

“Hey, hey. You won’t lose anything else today, alright?”

Coran nodded but continued to cry and when Shiro told Cenelra to hurry up, he finally felt okay enough to release her so she could get down to the lion hangar. She decided to take Lance’s zip line down and along the way, became clad in white Paladin armor with orange accents that seemed to accentuate her orange hair and blue markings. Once she was safely in the Blue Lion, the Paladins took off towards Zarkon’s main ship and formed Voltron.

“Cenelra, you doin’ okay?” Shiro asked and just after Cenelra confirmed, ships began to attack Voltron. Voltron managed to slice through a few ships before freezing up and breaking apart into the five separate lions. 

“What just happened there? Something tore us apart!” Hunk yelled.

“I don’t know, but we’ve got bigger problems right now, look!” Lance retaliated. Lance warned Cenelra to hold on and flipped out of the way of a few fighter ships, managing to destroy others in the process.

“I’m going for the black lion, you guys get Allura now!” Keith instructed and Lance continued to fight some of the ships in an attempt to get closer to the main ship. 

“We  _ have  _ to get in there, now!” Cenelra shouted, beginning to become anxious as they appeared to be losing the battle. 

“Maybe I could try hacking into one of their cargo bays?” Pidge pondered.

“There’s no time! Who knows what the Princess is experiencing right now!” Cenelra retaliated.

“Well do you have a better idea?”

“She might not, but I do,” Hunk began. 

“I’m gonna jump out of Blue. Hunk, catch me,” Cenelra said, immediately heading out of the cockpit and down towards the mouth of the lion.

“What? Cenelra!” Lance yelled after her. Cenelra ignored him and leapt from the Blue Lion and into the open mouth of the Yellow Lion as Hunk whizzed past.

“Hold on, we’re gonna ram the side of the ship!” Hunk yelled and Cenelra braced for impact as the lion’s jaw pierced the side of one of the Galran ships. When Yellow’s jaw opened, Cenelra and Hunk jumped down, Hunk took out one sentry with his bayard and Cenelra equipped her battleax and sliced the other one in half. Hunk then melted a hole through the doors of one of the cells and the two rushed in upon seeing Allura.

“Wh- Cenelra? Hunk?”

“Your highness, we have to go right now!” Cenelra said, helping Allura up.

“What are you doing here? Tell me you didn't bring Voltron straight to Zarkon's central command! Where's the Black Lion?"Allura worried. “We have to save Shiro!”

“Keith, have you rescued Shiro?” Cenelra asked but was met with silence. “Keith?”

“Hunk, Cenelra, did you get Allura?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, but there’s been a change of plans,” Hunk responded as the three ran down the halls, taking out sentries and attempting to find Shiro. They finally found him in a room attempting to take on multiple versions of Haggar, one of which was about to fatally injure him.

“Haggar!” Cenelra shouted, straightening herself and holding her battleaxe upright next to her. Haggar froze in her tracks and turned to face Allura, Hunk, and Cenelra then smiled once she saw them.

“Cenelra. Take care of them while I deal with Champion.”

Instantly, Cenelra spun her weapon around and turned to face Allura and Hunk, aiming her weapon at them and readying herself in case they wanted to fight her. The look on their faces was one of complete betrayal and Cenelra held back a wince as she heard Shiro scream as Haggar approached him again. She whipped around and threw her weapon at Haggar who looked at her angrily for a moment before she disappeared, Cenelra’s axe landing and sticking in the floor where she’d stood moments ago. She ran over and retrieved her weapon, returning her battle axe into the small cylinder it once was. After noticing that Haggar was absolutely gone, she made a noise of annoyance but quickly headed towards the door that they’d entered from.

“Come on, we’ve gotta get out of here before they get the lions.”

“Wh- you’re not-” Allura stuttered and Cenelra glanced at her.

“I would rather  _ die  _ than be her puppet again.”

Silently, Cenelra led the four of them through the ship, leading Shiro to where the Black Lion was and easily taking out any sentries that attempted to stand in their way as returned to the Yellow Lion. Once they returned to Yellow, Hunk flew them away from the Galra ship and back towards the Castle with Pidge and Lance following closely behind. As soon as the lions docked in the castle, Allura ran out of Yellow and towards the control room so she could warp the castle away as soon as possible.

“Uh, hey, Cenelra,” Hunk began as Cenelra turned to leave. “I’m sorry that I, like, immediately thought that you were going to betray us.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. It definitely looked like I was going to betray you,” she shrugged, turning to face the now standing paladin.

“Well, sure but, you’re actively trying to improve yourself, so the least I could do is to try to accept you and make you feel comfortable.”

At this, Cenelra smiled and was about to thank him for his kind words when the castle shifted and the two stumbled, Cenelra moving to hold onto the wall and Hunk moving to sit back down at his control panel.

“They have us surrounded!” Coran shouted and Allura said something in the background before opening a wormhole. Hunk pulled up a video of the castle’s windshield and the two watched as the wormhole changed colors, the castle still moving towards the wormhole.

“Wait, what just happened?” Pidge asked.

“Who cares? Wormhole!” Hunk responded and the castle moved quickly into the wormhole, it closing behind them moments later. Cenelra began to relax for a moment before the castle began to tremble and shift wildly, throwing her to the floor where she remained for fear of injuring herself in an attempt to stand up. 

“Uncle Coran, what’s going on?” Cenelra asked, panic evident in her voice.

“The integrity of the wormhole’s been compromised. It’s breaking down!” 

“What does that mean?” Lance shouted.

“It means we have no control over where we’re headed!” Cenelra responded. The castle tilted and shifted causing the five lions to fly out of the bay and out of the range of the wormhole, sending Blue and Yellow, Green, and Black and Red in different directions.


End file.
